Living in a League of Never Growing Up
by Accio Abarero
Summary: A collection of stories focused on the relationship between Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold. Two stories up: one JLI timeline, one BG timeline.
1. Drinking the Kool Aid

**Title:** Drinking the Kool Aid  
**Fandom:** Justice League International  
**Genre:** Humor/Romance  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Pairing:** Ted/Booster  
**Summary:** There are many reasons why you do not let Booster and Beetle have monitor duty at the same time. Here are _several_ of those reasons.  
**Notes:** Written for **a_trill**

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He wasn't sure who he was more upset with. The rest of the team, who were all surely out having a wonderful New Year's Eve without their buddy Blue Beetle to make bad jokes about everything, or J'onn who had calmly and forcefully told him that it was his night on monitor duty .

Of course, he'd protested; many times, in fact. But that all came to a screeching halt when J'onn had informed him that Batman covered monitor duty on Christmas without a complaint and that if he wished to protest any further that he'd have to take it up with Batman.

"Not like Bat-Scrooge probably cared about missing Christmas anyways," Ted muttered under his breath as J'onn left.

With a resigned sigh, he armed himself with the latest copy of _Entomology Illustrated_ and plopped down in front of the monitors.

"Monitor duty. On New Year's Eve. I hate my life."

Flipping to the Eudicella gralli centerfold, Ted started when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Who's the lovely lady beetle?"

"It's a flamboyant flower beetle."

Booster snorted, "Flamboyant, eh?"

Ted turned around in his chair. "Well, sometimes it's also called a striped love beetle."

Quirking an eyebrow, Booster leaned down to look at the image. "Not the usual type of girl you see in pinups."

"Actually, it's a male."

Booster's grin widened as he tried to pry the magazine from Ted's hands. "Ah, so you're cheating on me with a _male_ flamboyant love beetle. I should have known."

Tossing the magazine aside, Ted reached up and grabbed fistfuls of Booster's uniform; pulling it and the wearer down towards him as their goggles clattered together and lips met.

As the two broke apart grinning at one another, he said, "Sorry. You're stuck with me."

"Lucky me."

Noting the clock over Booster's shoulder, Ted wistfully asked, "So, you heading out somewhere?"

Booster blinked. "Aren't you? I'm here for monitor duty, so I guess you're off now."

"Monitor duty?"

"Yeah, Max just told me that I had to do it New Year's Eve because I skipped out early on Christmas Eve. And I think he was afraid I'd try and promote myself too much at the swanky party he made the rest of the team go to."

"I'm guessing J'onn and Max didn't talk this over," Ted began trying to contain his excitement, "because J'onn just assigned me monitor duty tonight as well."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. Through a fluke that I think they will never be stupid enough to repeat, it's you and I on monitor duty tonight, Booster ole buddy."

And as if it was planned, some drill they'd rehearsed many times, he called out. "I'll go get the sleeping bags."

"And I'll get the Lincoln Logs and legos!"

The two dashed off to gather supplies, each carrying armfuls of odd items in and then running back off to bring in more. It took them several trips, but finally the room was filled with piles of junk. And the night was only beginning.

It had taken them only about two hours to finish their first endeavor- a giant log cabin with a lego door that was now standing floor-to-ceiling inside the room.

"It's perfect," Ted said, appraising their handiwork. "Definitely better than pitching a tent in here."

"Monitor Duty sleepover, here we go!" Booster remarked as he rolled out two sleeping bags inside it.

The actual monitors they were supposed to be watching long forgotten, the two started off the night by mixing various Kool Aid flavors together and tasting the results. Sure, they'd been banned from having anything alcoholic while on monitor duty ever since Guy got so drunk he swore he was seeing an alien invasion in the static of an off monitor; but they suspected that no one had ever realized that getting wired off the sugar in Kool Aid was equally dangerous.

Giggling as he poured out their twenty second mixture, Ted said, "Okay- this one is Solar Strawberry Star Fruit Raspberry Reaction."

Already having a sugar buzz from the previous twenty one tests, Booster tapped his paper cup together in a toast with Ted and then downed the new flavor.

"Not bad," he murmured. "Though I still think Oh-Yeah Orange-Pineapple Man-O-Mango-Berry was the best."

Ted snickered, "I think you just liked licking off me when I spilt it."

"Oh-Yeah Man-Berry," Booster murmured seductively.

The two started laughing unstoppably, even though this joke had already been made about twelve times. Clearly sleep deprivation and lots of Kool Aid was not a good mix for one's mental health.

-----------------------------------------

Hours later, the two had taken to playing various board games they'd scrounged up from around the place.

Ted had gotten into a long winded explanation of how a Gum Drop Mountain was scientifically impossible and Booster had decided that after thirty minutes of being a good friend and acting like he cared that Beetle _needed_ to be silenced. This difficult task was accomplished easily by Booster, who went straight for a rambling Ted's weakest point- his mouth. The kiss definitely did the job and brought the comments about atmospheric pressure and gumdrops to an end, but it also ended the game abruptly when they decided they'd rather makeout on top of the game board rather than play a game on it.

After this, they decided they needed a more mature game to keep it from happening again and Booster suggested Truth or Dare.

"Okay. But since we do enough Dare-material pranks on our teammates on a normal basis, all dares must be focused on the person who is taking the dare. Agreed?"

A bit wary that Ted had something he'd been waiting to do up his sleeve, Booster agreed. "Okay. But if you try anything too messy, I'll just get you back for it."

They went through all the usual dares and truths; each one seemingly waiting for just the right moment to spring their worst dare or truth on their best friend.

Booster struck first on a truth that he was almost afraid to ask. "Okay- being completely honest, what is one thing about my physical appearance you've always been scared to tell me." Ted stared and he rubbed his head nervously. "You know- like does this spandex make my butt look big or is my hair stupid looking or…"

"Your eyes."

Booster froze. "Yes?"

Smiling Ted said. "I really like them. Then again, I'm partial to blue."

His bravado coming back right away, Booster winked. "I'll have to keep that in mind then."

"Oh and you're too small. But I'm not saying where," Ted joked. Booster swatted his arm.

"Shut up. I know it's my feet."

"Clearly."

"Okay, your turn."

"Truth or Dare," he asked, barely repressing a mischievous grin.

"Dare."

Almost unable to contain his glee that Booster had picked dare again (he'd been avoiding it since he'd been dared to eat something fuzzy from the back of the fridge) Ted leaned over and whispered into his ear.

"No way!"

"Trust me, the backup dare will be worse."

Knowing that Ted would hold to that, Booster warily stood, left their log cabin and headed down the hallway. He returned minutes later in Ice's old outfit from her Ice Maiden days. Ted fell over on his side laughing.

"I hate you, Beetle."

"Remember, it's…for the rest of the night… unless we both… end up naked." He finally managed to get the sentence out through gasps of air and more laughter.

"Fine. My turn to ask: truth or dare."

Either distracted by Booster's attire or just laughing too hard to think straight, Ted answered "Dare" without really thinking about it.

Booster grinned. "Payback time."

"What, Fire's old outfit?"

He shook his head. "Oh no. I'm not that nice."

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Tora had been the first to insist upon it, and Bea was quickly won over by her puppy-dog eyes and pleading. Finally, the others agreed to head back and celebrate the strike of midnight at the Embassy; half because they thought Tora was right that they shouldn't have to celebrate alone and half because they'd just realized that they'd left Beetle and Booster alone on monitor duty together.

But no matter what disaster they expected, nothing had prepared them for what they walked in on. After getting over the fact that _yes_ Beetle and Booster _had_ constructed a large log cabin from Lincoln Logs in the monitor room, Guy daringly opened the lego door.

"Argh, my eyes! I am going to have to burn that outfit now, you know!"

Of course, even J'onn and Batman were somewhat curious as to what could traumatize Guy so much and leaned to peer in alongside Bea and Tora.

"Is that my…" Tora started, trailing off as her mouth dropped open.

"It appears they've crashed after a massive sugar high," Batman deduced immediately on seeing the empty Kool Aid packages.

J'onn massaged his temples as Guy continued to rampage behind them, and Bea just smiled.

"Oh come, you have to admit that they look really cute all cuddled up like that."

"Like hell they do!" Guy snapped, "And as much as I'd love to see _my_ green uniform next to that lovely one of Ice's, I never want to see _those two_ in them. Ever!"

Tora rolled her eyes and turned to Bea. "As much as I hate to say it, we do need to take a picture of it."

"Why, to torture Guy with?"

She shook her head. "No. Scott will never believe it otherwise. He promised Barda he wouldn't come in until very late tomorrow, so they'll definitely have woken up by then."

As the two ladies went down the hallway to get a camera, J'onn turned to Batman.

"We can deal with these two in the morning."

Batman nodded and swept around to usher a still ranting Guy from the room. J'onn cast one last look into the cabin, the two superheroes in their borrowed Ice and Green Lantern costumes curled up together with content smiles on their faces, and closed the lego door.

"Happy New Year, Beetle and Booster."

And in the distance, a clock began to chime midnight.


	2. Evil Clones Don’t Drink Hot Chocolate

**Title:** Evil Clones Don't Drink Hot Chocolate  
**Fandom:** Booster Gold (with a dabble of _Blue Beetle_ and a nod to Justice League International)  
**Genre:** Humor/Romance  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Pairing:** Ted/Booster  
**Summary:** There's something strange about Ted Kord. First off, he's supposed to be dead, but he's not. And what's with all this cocoa?  
**Notes:** Written for **fleur_de_liz** as part of the awesomesauce that is **boostlethon**.

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"Ted?"

Booster was certain that he was hallucinating, or dreaming, or maybe both. Rubbing his eyes, he squinted at the familiar figure before him. By all appearances, it was Ted Kord. He'd materialized out of thin air in a ramshackle blue box and seemed to be shivering pretty badly. Booster couldn't see anything amiss, but he wasn't about to get his hopes up.

"Let me guess- evil clone?"

The man grinned. "Would I tell you if I was?"

Booster took a step closer, eyeing the box suspiciously. "Fine, I'll ask you something only he'd know."

He sneezed, his goggles going a bit askew as he rubbed at his nose. "Booster, if I was an evil clone of Ted Kord- one, I'd research him or two, I'd retain all of his memories. You wouldn't be able to thwart me. Evil clone or not though, I'd really like some hot cocoa."

Taking another step nearer, blue eyes scanned down the familiar costume. "_All_ his memories?"

"Yes Booster, even _those_," the Blue Beetle before him quipped. "Plus, would an evil clone show up shivering cold in a time machine that only a big nerd, such as myself, would even think of trying to build?"

"He would if he was trying to get me to let my guard down," Booster replied, once again edging closer.

The man seemed to consider this before his face fell, an obvious pout developing, "But it even makes the vworp sound! Do you know how hard it is to build a time machine in the shape of a blue police box _and_ get it to make the vworp noise when it dematerializes or rematerializes?"

Booster stared at him as he continued to ramble.

"If I'd been able to work on it while in the hidden areas of Kord Industries, it _might_ have been easy. But noooo, I had to spend my time there making a bioandroid to fake my own death with. And once that whole fiasco happened, I couldn't risk being around- so I had to go and hide at the Justice League Embassy in Antarctica. Which, by the way, is why I'm freezing my ass off in this spandex. That place is no more than a hole in the ice with a bunch of killer penguins around it. But still, I made it vworp! It took me two extra weeks to make it vworp!"

"...Beetle?"

"Yes?"

"You'd make a horrible evil clone," Booster said with a smile. The man before him started laughing, that distinct laugh that was all Ted Kord and could never ever be mimicked by anyone else. Booster recognized that laugh and knew at once that this was _his_ Ted.

"Bwa-ha-ha! Can you imagine an evil clone of me? That would be the worst attack plan ever!"

Booster grinned, closing the remaining space between them and pulling his friend into an embrace. "Sounds like something we'd come up with as a prank. Actually, since Michelle and Rip are out…"

"Michelle? Your sister? Isn't she dead?"

Booster gave him a pointed look. "Beetle, you're supposed to be dead. Don't act so surprised."

"Ah point. But first, I demand hot cocoa. I am freezing my buns of steel off."

"Buns of steel?"

"Well they used to be steel before I froze them off!"

The two looked at each other, both trying to remain utterly serious and failing as they broke into peals of laughter. Throwing an arm around his shoulders, Booster led Ted towards the kitchen.

"Okay, cocoa first. Then, we're going to convince two very unsuspecting people that you are an evil clone while I play the part of his beloved friend who swears the real Ted is still in there somewhere."

Ted chuckled. "Oooh, the whole 'Ted, can you hear me? It's Booster. Your friend, Booster. Please, don't hurt me! I love you Ted and I know this isn't like you' act?"

"That's it," Booster continued with a grin. "Then we'll let Rip run a ton of tests on you to assure him that you _aren't_ an evil clone and that you haven't screwed up the time stream."

"Boooo-ringgg."

"Hey now, we're almost to the good part," he said as Ted took a chair and he began to rummage in the cabinet for cocoa. "After that, and possibly a small dose of Michelle fussing on you and me and how cute we are…"

"She wouldn't."

"She would. She'll know right away, because she's got some super sister senses or something. I could never hide my crushes from her when I was kid either."

"Ah, okay. Sister fussing it is then. But after that?"

Booster held up a finger and quickly finished mixing the cocoa and heating it up. Sitting down across from Ted at the table, he slid the mug across to him.

"And last, but not least, I will personally test to see if this cocoa has returned your buns to their former steel glory."

Ted raised an eyebrow as he sipped his cocoa. "Oh will you?"

"In a very hands-on way, just to assure accuracy."

"How nice of you."

"That's what friends are for, Beetle."

The two froze as they heard voices down the hallway; both of their faces alight with matching expressions of mischievous joy.

"I believe it's show time, Booster ole buddy," Ted said, downing the last of the cocoa and standing. "How's my evil clone face?"

He stood rigidly still and looked forward blankly. Booster repressed a laugh.

"Perfect. I'm sure you'll win an Oscar for your performance. You ready?"

Ted threw down the chair he'd previously occupied and said in a very convincing monotone voice, "I will destroy you, Booster Gold!"

And Booster took that as his cue to run for it.

"Rip! Michelle! Help me!"

-------------------------------------------

Rip said seven months would have to pass before he would allow Ted to go along with Booster on missions into the time stream. His reason was that chronal residue took that amount of time to completely settle in molecules, but both Ted and Booster suspected that he was just bitter about their evil clone prank going over so well. Skeets was, of course, glad to see Ted, and Michelle was thrilled to meet the man who (according to her) her brother had been mooning over. Ted _still_ hadn't let Booster forget this conversation, constantly assuring him, "Don't get too depressed, ole buddy. I'm just going into the kitchen and then I'll be right back."

As for Ted himself, there were no repercussions of his falsified death as far as Rip could tell. And given that he had run over a hundred tests and nothing had come back abnormal, everyone felt pretty confident that he was in the clear. But there was one, very slight, change that had occurred; ever since his arrival to the lab in his rickety time machine, Ted Kord had become strangely addicted to hot cocoa.

"It's because I was living off literal ice water for months," he had reasoned.

Then, because he was bored when Booster and Michelle were on missions, he'd begun to run tests on his new addiction. Three months after his testing began, he proudly announced that his body temperature _had_ dropped 1.73 repeating degrees and his penchant for the warm chocolate beverage was clearly his body's way of trying to rectify that. Michelle was impressed, Rip rolled his eyes, Skeets offered to brew up another mug for him and Booster called him a dork.

Thankfully, for all involved, the months went by pretty quickly; Ted having passed the days tinkering with his time machine in attempts to make the inside bigger than the outside and pestering Rip in his lab. As seven months came around, Rip realized he could no longer forbid Ted from missions and Michelle volunteered to sit out a few trips to give the boys some "alone time," much to Rip's chagrin. Ted just turned to Booster and eagerly asked what they'd be fixing that day. Little did Rip know, but damage to the time stream was the least of his concerns.

---------------------------------

"I'll bet you twenty dollars."

"Beetle…"

"Oh come on, it'll be hilarious. We've got Wonder Woman's lasso back and time is a-okay again. Why not have some fun?"

Booster bit his lip, clearly contemplating the pros and cons.

"Chicken," Ted taunted.

He sighed in resignation, "Okay, what's the bet again?"

"Egg Wonder Woman's invisible plane. If she comes out and says 'Great Hera!' I'll give you twenty dollars."

Two cartons of eggs and an enraged Amazon later, the time travelers returned to the lab laughing.

"You owe me forty dollars."

"The deal was twenty!"

"She said it _twice_. Do the math."

"Fine," Ted grumbled, pausing as he saw an eggshell in Booster's hair. "You've got egg on you, by the way."

As he reached up to brush it off, Booster caught his wrist and pulled him forward. The two stared at each other a moment before their lips met in a heated kiss. Ted tasted of his blasted cocoa and some spice that Booster couldn't quite place.

"I should make a video of this and post it on the internet," Skeets quipped moments later.

The two pulled apart, both glaring at the robot.

"Completed mission celebratory kisses are not public domain."

"Not unless you're charging for it and we get all the profits," Ted piped in. Booster raised an eyebrow in contemplation and he added, "Think about it. We'd be rich."

"We're charging by the minute, right Beetle?"

"Like a porn site?"

"We'd definitely be rich if we put _that_ on there."

Skeets gave a little robotic huff of indignation and sulkily floated off, the two laughing as he went.

Once certain Skeets was gone though, Booster looked to Ted.

"So…uh, what flavor is that?" He asked licking his lips.

Ted grinned. "Cinnamon cocoa. Michelle gave it to me."

"Good move, Sis," he replied with a smirk. "Maybe we should go tell her why you now owe me forty dollars."

Tapping Booster's goggles, Ted jokingly warned in his evil clone voice, "I'll get you next time, Booster Gold."

-------------------------------------------------

After the egg incident, there was no stopping Booster and Beetle's post-mission pranks. They planted a "Kick Me" sign on J'onn's back, booby trapped Max's office with mousetraps and put Guy Gardner in drag after having to knock him out while impersonating a villain.

And after each successful prank, Booster kissed Ted to try and guess the new flavor of cocoa Ted was drinking. White chocolate, hazelnut, mint, caramel, and even peanut butter topped the list as the most common pre-mission drinks; but Booster made sure to discover all the flavors in-between missions too.

Then, as a surprise for Ted's tenth mission, Booster took him to meet his successor with a great prank in mind.

"Jaaayyy-meeee, Jaaayyy-meeee!"

"It's pronounced High-may, Beetle!" Booster yelled from the bushes.

Ted, who was currently pretending to be a ghost haunting the new Beetle, hissed back to his partner, "You should have told me that earlier!"

Turning back to the boy's bedroom window, Ted continued his eerie chant until Jaime pulled the window open.

"…Ted Kord? But I thought you were dead."

"I am but a ghost now, come to haunt you for tainting my title."

Jaime rolled his eyes. "Right. And since when did ghosts drink?"

Ted looked down to the thermos of cocoa in his hand and shrugged. Booster cursed and came storming out of the bushes. "Beetle, I told you to leave it in the Time Sphere. You don't need hot cocoa in Texas!"

"But it hurts my throat to do that weird ghost voice and raspberry cocoa is soothing."

"You ruined what might have been the best prank ever!"

"If I'd had more time to plan, then I would have been prepared!"

"It was supposed to be a surprise!"

Looking between the two superheroes, Jaime cleared his throat. "So is anyone going to explain to me why my predecessor isn't dead or are you just going to continue bickering like my parents?"

A quick change into casual attire and a trip to a local all-night dinner later, Booster proceeded to fill Jaime in. Finally catching the teen up to their failed prank on him, Jaime interrupted.

"So wait, you can travel anywhere, and you're pranking me instead of Batman?"

Booster and Ted exchanged a look before both turning to Jaime with identical maniacal grins.

"A prankster at heart. It's official. You _are_ worthy of the title of Blue Beetle," Ted said patting Jaime on the back.

"So any ideas as to what to pull on Batman?" Booster asked.

The three of them put their heads together and began plotting.

"I'm not sure about this…"

"Oh come on, Beetle."

"But what if he can somehow figure out who did it? He'll murder me."

"Good thing you're dead then."

"Ha ha."

"Michelle is betting us two hundred dollars to do this, Beetle. I think she suspects we'll chicken out. And I promised the kid I'd take pictures."

"Okay, okay." Ted started to loosen his belt and tug his costume bottoms down. "Tell me when he's coming."

Booster squinted up against the large spotlight, searching the sky for the familiar cloaked figure. "I think I see him. Get ready!"

Batman landed on the rooftop, glanced over to the Bat-Signal and then to the two figures on the roof.

"Hey Bats! Check out these buns of steel!" Ted yelled, mooning the dark knight.

Booster's camera flashed and Beetle pulled up his pants; the two of them quickly jumping to the next roof and going down the fire escape.

Once safely several blocks away, Beetle whooped in triumph and threw his arms around Booster's neck, kissing him firmly. He smirked as they pulled apart.

"What is that? Mocha flavored cocoa?" Booster asked with a grin.

But before Ted could answer, a shadowy figure dropped down beside them.

"The Bat-Signal isn't to be used for childish pranks, Beetle and Booster," a familiar growl of a voice intoned.

"He knows."

"Shit."

And without a backward glance, the two started running in the direction of the Time Sphere.

"Run away! Run away! Run away!"


End file.
